


Arthur 'Never Scream' Curry

by fourshoesfrank



Series: autistic dc [4]
Category: Aquaman (2018)
Genre: 1/3 of aquaman fics are incest thats nasty, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Autistic Arthur Curry, Brotherly Bonding, Diving, Gen, No Incest, arthur is 16 orm is 14, takes place when kekoa kekumano plays arthur, this was in my drafts since december omg
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-11
Updated: 2019-06-11
Packaged: 2020-04-24 12:30:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19173307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fourshoesfrank/pseuds/fourshoesfrank
Summary: Orm and Arthur meet much earlier, and form a much better relationship.





	Arthur 'Never Scream' Curry

**Author's Note:**

> eheheh i finally had a decent premise and then i added autistic!arthur and made it a Great premise. enjoy!

"Arthur, we have a guest today," Vulko announced. He gestured at the ocean with a smile. "They have come all the way from Atlantis to see you."

Arthur stared at the water with wide, hopeful eyes. "Is it my mom?" he said, knowing the answer was going to be disappointing but unable to keep himself from asking. Vulko shook his head with a sigh, and Arthur pushed his hope away once more. Of course it wasn't his mom. He waited for Vulko to say the words, make it official. Another training session without Mom.

"I think it's best if you see for yourself," Vulko said at last. 

Arthur kept looking at the water. "When will they be here?"

"I told him to come as quickly as he could."

The two of them waited on the beach for about five more minutes. Arthur tried not to blink, or rub his face, or do anything that would obstruct his view of the surface of the water. Vulko stood patiently beside him.

"Ah! He's here," Vulko said, clasping his hands together in a way that made him look more like a royal advisor who interacted with royalty on the regular and less like a teacher who spent three days a week showing a teenager how to spin a fork around. "Wait here. I haven't told him why he's meeting us," Vulko instructed. He waded out into the ocean and stood there, waiting.

"Okay." Arthur still didn't see anyone, but he knew that Vulko and the new guy probably had all kinds of fancy Atlantean tech that let them talk to each other. Like super-powered Walkie-Talkies. Without the Talkies. Walkie-Swimmies.

A kid with the pastiest skin Arthur had ever seen rose out of the waves to meet Vulko. They spoke for a moment, probably to exchange greetings. Vulko pointed back toward Arthur, and the pale kid looked up at the beach. Arthur waved.

The kid made a face and turned back to Vulko. They spoke for a little bit more, but the frown remained plastered to the pale kid's face. He and Vulko started walking up to the beach. 

"You must be—" the kid started to say something once Arthur was in earshot, but Vulko shushed him. 

The advisor extended an arm in each boy's direction and bowed slightly. "Your Highness, this is Arthur Curry, your half-brother. Arthur, this is Prince Orm." He stepped back and let the boys continue to warily eye each other. "Try not to kill each other."

Arthur took a good look at the prince's clothing while Orm stood there silently. He was decked out in some kind of scaly silver armor, and he wore a slightly dented helmet. The metal looked the same as Vulko's armor. Arthur felt a little underdressed in his jeans and tank top. 

Orm still hadn't said anything. Arthur didn't want to be the first to speak, because this was an actual prince right in front of him and Arthur did not want to get thrown in Fish Jail for saying the wrong thing. Based on what Vulko had told him about Atlantis, Arthur felt like his reluctance was justified. But if his brother was just going to stand there, well...

"Nice to meet you, I guess," Arthur said. He stuck out his hand for Orm to shake.

The prince took Arthur's hand and pumped it once, releasing his grip almost immediately afterwards like he'd just touched a dead fish. Did that expression still apply if he lived underwater? Either way, Orm didn’t seem too thrilled at the idea of meeting his surface-dwelling brother. 

Arthur avoided eye contact with the other boy, although he knew Orm was trying to get Arthur to look him in the eyes. It was too soon. Arthur didn't know him, so he didn't feel safe meeting his brother's eyes. 

"Well met, Arthur Curry," Orm said at last. Arthur could see Vulko's shoulders relax at the first sign that the two of them weren't going to fight it out right there on the beach.

"Yeah. Well met."

 

-

 

Over the next three lessons, Arthur and Orm gradually became less wary of each other. Orm didn't wear a full suit of armor to the second lesson, and Arthur could look Orm fully in the eye by the end of the third day. 

Vulko had invited Orm along in order to give Arthur a sparring partner who more or less matched his skill level. The advisor also encouraged the pair of them to learn about each other's cultures. Arthur never stopped asking about Atlantis, and Orm could use a bit of perspective to make him truly appreciate life below the surface. The decision to bring the boys together was a good one.

 

-

 

“So you’ve never seen a dog?”

Orm shook his head. “Or a cow, or a bear, or whatever other surface animal you’re thinking of.”

Arthur closed his mouth. He’d been about to ask Orm if he’d ever seen a mouse. Mice were cute, Orm would probably remember if he'd seen one. 

“That doesn’t seem fair,” he said. “I mean, I’ve seen a ton of fish, but you’ve only seen, like, birds. Surface animals are pretty cool.”

“I doubt it,” Orm muttered. Arthur whipped his head around to glare at his brother. 

“Okay, even if the animals are boring, the plants aren’t. Look at these flowers, man. That’s cool. They’re pretty.” 

Orm scoffed. "Sure."

"Look, Orm, you haven't gone anywhere on the surface except for this one island. Give it a chance, dude."

Orm didn't dignify that with a response.

 

-

 

"Why did I agree to this?"

Arthur grinned at Orm and tossed his little brother a pair of shoes. "'Cause Vulko told you to, probably," he admitted, "but seriously, Orm, you're not gonna regret this. Trust me." Arthur didn't even know exactly where he was going to take Orm, but he had a few rough ideas in mind. None of them were on the same level of awesomeness as an underwater palace, but hey...arcade games were fun, and Arthur had enough money to play Pac Man a few times. If all else failed, he could show Orm a swing set. Arthur knew that gravity didn't affect people the same way in the air as it did in the water. Buoyancy, and all that. Atlantean playgrounds were probably way different from surface playgrounds. A swing would probably blow Orm’s mind. 

"I'm finding that trusting you is increasingly hard to do," Orm muttered, sighing as he tugged on the sandals Arthur had provided. Arthur frowned a little as he watched Orm wiggle his toes around. The shoes were too big by a size or two, but they would have to work. Arthur didn't have too-small shoes just laying around. Then again, Orm wouldn’t know the difference. 

Orm didn’t know shit about the surface, Arthur realized. For all the Atlantean knew, Arthur could take him to a ballet performance and pass it off as a war dance. Orm was out of his element here, literally. 

“Can we get this over with at least somewhat painlessly?”

“Dude, you’re like, fourteen. Why so serious? I swear, we’re gonna have fun.”

There, Arthur had promised, so now he _had_ to deliver. The arcade seemed like a safe bet, at least to start with. It was fun, the games weren’t too hard, and it was less than twenty minutes’ walking distance from the shore. 

“ _You’re_ going to have fun,” Arthur’s brother corrected him, prompting a sigh from Arthur. This was the most emo kid he’d ever met. It was hard to believe they were related. People always said Arthur was a pretty happy guy, even if he was a little antisocial. 

"You're gonna have fun too," Arthur insisted. Orm rolled his eyes. Arthur didn't even have to look at his brother's eyes to know that they were being rolled. What was his deal?

Arthur and Orm made it to the arcade with minimal complaining from the prince. Going inside the building, however, was a different story. 

"I will not! You mock me, Arthur Curry. You expect the prince of Atlantis to partake in these children's games? Did you honestly, truly expect this to work?"

Arthur shrugged. "A little bit, yeah. I mean, you're pretty young. I like the arcade, and I'm two years older than you."

"Yes, but you are a simpleton."

Arthur stared at Orm, trying to figure out if the prince was joking or not. He genuinely couldn’t tell. 

Arthur decided to ask Orm, because he’d probably never find out otherwise. “What do you mean?” 

“I mean, you are a simpleton. Surely there are other people like yourself here on the surface. I meant to say that you enjoy games meant for children because you are like a child.”

Well. That settled Arthur’s internal debate, then. 

“Fuck off, man,” Arthur spat. He hated Orm in that moment, he hated the way that this fucking prince thought he knew everything just because he was from the ocean. “Yeah, we’ve got people like me up here, but we actually have a word for us. We _care_ about people who are different here on the surface! Fuck off, go back to the ocean with your shitty ideas about my brain. I’m smart, I’m probably smarter than you, but I shouldn’t have to be for you to respect me!” He was yelling, but he didn’t care. Arthur’s arms gesticulated wildly as he ranted at Orm, finally giving voice to his lifelong frustrations about the way he was treated. Orm was not the first person to spout this bullshit, he was just the first spouter whom Arthur was allowed to yell at. 

While Arthur was shouting at him, Orm just stood there. He took one step backward when Arthur’s waving hand almost hit him on his royal nose, but other than that, he was still. Arthur would’ve liked it better if his brother had gotten angry, or scared, or something. It would have felt like he actually did something with his rant. As things were, Arthur felt embarrassed and too tired to put up with the Atlantean for any longer. 

“Forget the arcade, man. I’ll walk you back to the ocean.”

 

-

 

Orm probably told Vulko about Arthur yelling at him, because Vulko showed up to the next lesson alone. Arthur was still fuming inside at his brother—his ridiculous, pompous, arrogant brother—so he was grateful that the two of them weren’t being forced to make amends yet. Vulko proceeded with the lesson as if nothing was wrong, but afterwards, he said that he needed to talk to Arthur about something important. 

Arthur already knew what this was about. 

“I understand that Prince Orm made some upsetting remarks when you saw him last,” the advisor said. Arthur snorted. Yeah, upsetting was one way to put it. 

“He called me a simpleton. He was shitting on autistic people.”

Did Vulko even know what autism was?

Either he did know, or he didn’t know but didn’t want to ask, because Vulko was giving Arthur a small lecture on how Kings Do Not Need To Raise Their Voices Or Use Profanity To Make Their Thoughts Known.

“However,” the advisor continued, dropping the lecture tone this time, “Prince Orm is not in the right any more than you are. If anything, you are slightly more justified in your sulking. Your people were insulted, you merely took their defense too far. Prince Orm must apologize to you.”

 _Damn right he should,_ Arthur thought, but he didn’t say that. Vulko would never let him hear the end of it.

 

-

 

“Arthur.”

Arthur didn’t look at Orm. He was still mad at his brother, and he seriously doubted that any apology that Orm managed to spit out would be satisfactory. He ignored the other boy and focused on cleaning his trident. This trident had been his mother’s, and since most of her Atlantean belongings were in her palace, out of reach, Arthur tried to take good care of the trident. It was one of the only things he had of his mom. 

Orm didn’t give up, though. “Arthur,” he said, more insistently this time. Arthur continued to ignore him. 

“Arthur Curry!”

The little shit just couldn’t leave him alone. “What?” Arthur snapped, whipping his head around to glare at his brother. “What do you want?”

“I want to apologize!” Orm shouted. He was obviously not used to apologizing, but Arthur decided to ignore that for the moment. He knew that if he didn’t at least entertain Orm’s attempt to apologize, Vulko would feed him to a shark. Arthur had to at least give his brother the pretense of an apology, even if he thought it was bullshit. 

“Go ahead, then. Apologize,” Arthur said angrily. He still wouldn’t look Orm in the eye. Arthur kept his gaze focused on the tip of his brother’s nose while the other boy’s words rang in his ears. 

“You were correct, brother. A being’s intelligence does not indicate the respect owed to it. I am sorry for referring to you as a simpleton, and for implying that you are beneath me. We are equals, brother.”

Arthur snorted out loud. That apology sounded a wee bit scripted, but Orm’s delivery had sounded sincere enough, and Arthur was just enough of a sucker to (mostly) forgive him. He met his brother’s eyes and held out a hand for Orm to shake. 

“Apology accepted,” Arthur said, “but you’ve gotta do more than just _say_ you respect us, Orm. You have to actually _show_ me respect. If you can’t do that, then don’t bother shaking my hand.” He purposely keeping as much emotion as he could out of his voice, but his anger still managed to bleed into his tone a little. Orm didn’t indicate any emotions of his own at all as he took Arthur’s hand and shook it. 

“Perhaps I shall join you on the surface at another time, brother.”

 

-

 

“Okay, bro,” Arthur began, rubbing his hands together and glancing over at Orm beside him. “Do you guys jump underwater?”

“...No,” Orm replied, looking puzzled. He’d had an expression of confusion and puzzlement and more confusion on his face for almost the entire day. Arthur was quietly reveling in his brother’s bewilderment and lack of knowledge about the surface. 

So far, Arthur had introduced Orm to arcade games (Orm beat the place’s high score in a racing game), claw machines (Orm attempted to bribe the machine before Arthur pointed out that it wasn’t sentient and nobody controlled it), a swing set (Orm loved it, he just wouldn’t admit it), and ink pens (Atlanteans did all their writing by chiseling rock or writing on their version of iPads). Each one had been a smashing hit, as far as Arthur was concerned. And now, to cap off the afternoon, he was going to show Orm how to dive. 

“Why do you want to know if we jump in Atlantis?” Orm demanded. “Why are we standing on this rock so high above the ocean? Why do you have that stu– that ridiculous grin on your face again? Is this dangerous?”

Arthur laughed and shook his head in amusement. “Little brother, if you haven’t jumped off of this cliff, you haven’t lived. At least, that’s how my friends and I see it. Now, normally we jump from down there,” he said, pointing to a section of the cliff to the west that was only about twenty-five feet above the water, “but since me and you are Atlantean, we’re gonna go all out. We’re gonna jump into the water from right here.” He rubbed his hands together again and threw Orm ‘that ridiculous grin’, which had preceded so many of the activities that his brother referred to as “surface-dweller shenanigans.” 

“We’re _not_ going to jump from here.” If it was possible for Orm to turn even paler than he normally was, that was what he was doing. Arthur was half afraid his brother was going to disappear completely. 

Arthur’s smile softened a tiny bit. “It’s totally safe, man,” he reassured Orm. “I’ve done it tons of times. Vulko jumped from here once! You’ll be fine.”

Orm pursed his very white and very dry lips. It was obvious he was trying to hold on to the air of regality and severity that he had come out of the water with that day, but that had dissipated completely somewhere around the time he shouted in excitement when he beat the arcade game’s best score. Arthur kind of felt bad for him. He didn’t know when it was alright to let go of the royal airs and just be a kid. 

“Let’s jump on three,” Arthur suggested. “One, two—“

“Three!” Orm shouted, running ahead of Arthur and positively _flinging_ himself from the grassy limestone rocks and tossing a glance back at Arthur, who was standing on the cliff, not moving. He shook himself out of it quickly enough, and within fifteen seconds Arthur was hurtling after his brother towards the cyan surface of the sea. 

Arthur was on the swim and dive team at school, so he knew how to fall into water from a great height. He tucked his limbs into position and relaxed a little, feeling the air rush past his ears as he plummeted down. This was fun, way more fun than jumping the twenty-five foot western cliff. 

Orm had obviously never fallen through the air before. He was falling spread-eagled, posed to hit the water in a belly-flop. It made Arthur wince just thinking about it. Orm wasn’t screaming, though, which Arthur gave him credit for. Of course, Arthur never screamed when he jumped off of cliffs, he only hooted with joy. Obviously. Arthur ‘Never Scream’ Curry, they called him. 

The surface of the water rushed up to meet them. Arthur knew what to do, and breathed out hard through his nose to make sure no water entered his nostrils on impact. He didn’t really need to do that, being half Atlantean and all, but it was a habit that his coach had drilled into him since the very first day of practice. He hit the water and let himself sink a few yards down into the blue silence before he swam back up. 

He looked around for Orm and saw his brother spluttering and treading water a few feet away. Arthur swam over to him with an ear-splitting grin on his face. 

“Dude, there’s no way you—“

“I will not be doing that again,” Orm interrupted him coldly. “How are you not injured? The front of my body is in a great deal of pain at the moment, Arthur Curry.”

Arthur laughed. “That’s just because I forgot to teach you how to dive. Don’t worry, next time I’ll give you the crash course.” He snorted. “Literally.”

Orm’s voice rose half an octave. “Next time?”

“Oh, yeah.”

**Author's Note:**

> arthur was on the swim & dive team and nobody can change my mind. also he totally did throwing events on the track and field team. nobody can change my mind!
> 
> y’all should leave comments and/or kudos or at least some form of feedback......that’s what fuels the writing machine


End file.
